1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications, and, in particular, to the encoding of audio and/or video signals for transmission over a communications network to a remote decoder for playback.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional telecommunications system 100 for audio/video communications. The ability of telecommunications system 100 to provide acceptable communications depends on the fidelity of (1) encoder 102, which encodes a signal at the transmitter, (2) communications (comm) network 104, over which the encoded signal is transmitted, and (3) decoder 106, which decodes the transmitted encoded signal at the receiver. The present invention is directed to a scheme for improving the quality of telecommunications, such as those provided by system 100. Further aspects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description which follows.